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Updated: Apr 12, 2026

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Spatially resolved x-ray studies of liquid crystals with strongly developed bond-orientational order
I A Zaluzhnyy1,2, R P Kurta1,3, E A Sulyanova4
1Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestraße 85, D-22607 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
We present an x-ray study of freely suspended hexatic films of the liquid crystal 3(10)OBC. Our results reveal spatial inhomogeneities of the bond-orientational (BO) order in the vicinity of the hexatic-smectic phase transition and the formation of large-scale hexatic domains at lower temperatures. Deep in the hexatic phase up to 25 successive sixfold BO order parameters have been directly determined by means of angular x-ray cross-correlation analysis (XCCA). Such strongly developed hexatic order allowed us to determine higher order correction terms in the scaling relation predicted by the multicritical scaling theory over a full temperature range of the hexatic phase existence.
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